Appeal to the Health Secretary: Put a stop to this senseless plan

Leaders on Telford & Wrekin Council have written to the Secretary of State for Health, urging him again to halt the ‘flawed’ and ‘senseless’ plan to close key services at Telford's hospital.

In their letter, Council Leader Councillor Shaun Davis, Conservative Group Leader Councillor Andrew Eade and Councillor Bill Tomlinson, Liberal Democrat Group Leader, told Jeremy Hunt MP that the Full Council unanimously backed a motion at last week’s EGM (6 October), deploring the recent plans to move the Princess Royal Hospital’s A&E unit and the new £28m Women and Children’s Centre to the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

The letter calls on the Health Secretary to intervene, saying: “It makes no sense to move the very successful Women & Children’s Unit only two years after it opened and reverse the proven clinical case for this unit being based in Telford.

“We call on the Secretary of State for Health to immediately intervene and put a permanent halt to this flawed plan and fund Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin’s health economy sufficiently to ensure we can maintain two properly resourced A&Es and retain the Women & Children’s Unit at the PRH.

It concludes: “This is a very important and pressing issue for people in this borough and beyond who face having their hospital’s services seriously downgraded. We urge you now, on behalf of the people of Telford and Wrekin and the many thousands of others around the Borough for whom the Princess Royal is also their hospital, to intervene and put a stop to this senseless plan.”You can read the full letter